Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Calif. Teaching Hospitals Among Recipients of Primary Care Grants

HHS has announced that the Health Resources and Services Administration recently awarded about $12 million in Affordable Care Act funds to primary care residency programs at 32 teaching health centers, including four in California, FierceHealthcare reports (Caramenico, FierceHealthcare, 7/23).

The $12 million was provided through the ACA's Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Payment Program (HHS release, 7/19).

Primary Care Shortage in Calif.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, only about one-third of active physicians in California practice primary care. In addition, many of the state's primary care providers are near retirement age.

Meanwhile, observers say that a shortage of such physicians could increase under the ACA, which will offer health insurance to millions of additional state residents (California Healthline, 4/23).

Details of Funding

The funding was allotted to help train more than 300 resident physicians in primary care during the 2013-2014 academic year, which is twice as many as in the previous academic year (FierceHealthcare, 7/23).

The four California centers that received the funding were:

Fresno Health Communities Access Partners, which received $150,000;

Shasta Community Health Center in Redding, which received $150,000;

Social Action Community Health System in San Bernardino, which received $525,000; and

Valley Consortium for Medical Education in Modesto, which received $712,500 (HHS release, 7/19).

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